A Night With You
by Princess Pinky
Summary: Patty finally gets her night with the one man who understands her like no one else, Sam.


**A/N:** Okay, this is something I've been thinking about since shortly after I wrote _I'll Be There For Yule_. Basically, it's another Pam (Patty/Sam) fic that takes place seven weeks and six days before IBTFY. It's somewhat of a companion/prequel if you will. And by the way, if you're a _Charmed_ geek like me and you're able to store freakish amounts of tiny episodic details in your head (and/or if you're just a crazy hardcore Pam fan, again, not unlike myself) you'll know EXACTLY where this fic gets its title. (But I've also included a pretty big clue for any poor stragglers. lol I doubt that there will be any though, at least not if you're part of my regular crowd.)

_**A Night With You**_

Patty Halliwell had coiled herself up on the couch, surrounded by a bowl of homemade caramel coated popcorn and a dish containing an assortment of candies that were mostly of the chocolate variety. She was alternating between the candy bowl and the popcorn bowl with zombie-like mannerisms while her sugar brown eyes were focused on the _Bewitched_ marathon playing on the television.

The moment the doorbell rang, the dazed expression she wore evaporated from her face. She pushed the caramel corn aside and threw her legs over the side of the couch, where pair of dainty high heels coated in red glitter were waiting for her to slide her feet into them. "Coming!" she called, clicking across the hardwood floor. She stopped at the front doors and reached up to adjust the baby blue bow in her wavy brown hair before pulling open the door.

"Trick or treat."

Patty's eyes took on an airy glow. "Sam!" she yelped, and threw her arms around his neck. "Thank goodness," she breathed into his ear. "I was so worried about you!"

"I know," he said as he stepped into the Manor. He looked Patty up and down and he could feel his pulse quicken. "You look beautiful."

Patty looked down at her blue and white checkered dress and nervously smoothed the creases. "Thank you." She motioned to his dark olive green jacket, matching top hat, pinstriped pants, and black bow tie over his crisp white shirt and brown vest. "You don't look too bad yourself, Oh Great and Powerful Oz."

Sam playfully twirled his gold capped black cane. "So," he grinned, "I guess the only question that remains is, are you a good witch or a bad witch?"

Patty giggled as she shut the door. The sound of her laughter was like wind chimes in the night.

As they began walking towards the living room, Sam produced a small pumpkin with a star carved into the front from his plastic trick or treat bag. He pulled up the stem and retrieved a small letter from the inside. "I got your letter." He set the pumpkin on the table in the middle entry way. "I really liked the 'envelope.'"

"It's for-"

"Protection." He smiled. "I know." He tucked the letter into his pocket. "I'm sorry I haven't been around, I've been in Utah. It was a new charge and I had to pose as a substitute teacher." They walked into the living room and Sam noticed that the television was on. "Where're the girls?"

Patty sighed. The shine in her eyes promptly vanished. "With Victor."

"I thought you were all going out?"

"That was the alleged plan, until Victor got in a fight with Mother over teaching the girls traditional Samhain traditions versus trick or treating. I suggested we do both and," she threw up her hands as if to freeze someone, "well, here I am."

"He just left?" Sam asked, disgusted.

"Not exactly. We kept arguing, Phoebe started crying, and so finally I just told him to take the girls…I'm supposed to meet up with them at the Trudeaus' in a couple of hours, his parents are throwing a party for the kids." She sat down on the couch. "I just needed time to cool off."

"Is Penny home?"

"She went out with her coven. She was saying something about at least doing something productive on All Hallows Eve when she slammed the door."

Sam took a seat next to her and placed his hand over hers. "I'm sorry."

"I guess it's something I should be used to by now, you know?"

Sam shook his head. "Patty, you've been confiding your marital troubles in me for over a year…that's not something you should have to do. You deserve someone who respects you for exactly who you are."

Patty turned her hand under Sam's and laced her fingers with his. "I've already found him."

A fleck of water squeezed itself from the corner of Patty's eye and glided down her cheek, bringing black mascara with it. "Patty…" Sam pressed the pad of his thumb against her cheek and wiped away the marring streak.

Patty turned suddenly and nestled her head into his chest. "Nobody understands me like you do," she whispered.

Sam rested his hand against her head and began to stroke her satin hair. "I just want you to be happy."

"I am happy," she whispered. "I'm happy when I'm _with you_…" she snuggled closer to him, enough to breathe in the musty smell of his plaid shirt. "…on nights like this."

Sam closed his eyes. "I wish they could be more frequent."

"I don't get Their stupid rules," she hissed. "It's not fair!"

"When has it ever been?"

"When you're gone, I feel like some critical part of me is gone too. I'm so hollow inside I can hear my thoughts echo like I'm screaming into the Grand Canyon!" Her eyes began to glaze ever so slightly. "And I feel like I'm on auto-pilot until I see your face again."

"I know." He didn't know what else to say to her. He wanted to comfort her so badly, to give her _everything_ her husband couldn't and wouldn't, but The Elders had already threatened to take him away because the feelings they shared so deeply for one another.

The thought of being taken away from her forever made him _hurt_: emotionally and physically. The only pain he could truly compare it to was the pain of dying, burning to death as he'd done while saving his students back in New York during the fateful fire that had propelled him into whitelighterhood. And yet the thought of never seeing Patty again was tenfold the agony he'd experienced then.

Supple, caramel flavored lips pressed to his, drawing him far away from his thoughts, back into the present. He realized Patty was kissing him and he could feel his heart begin a marathon of beats. His skin felt so hot he thought he might felt like the Wicked Witch of the West when she finally leaned away. "What are you…" his mind was swimming in the smell of her perfume. "What are you doing?" finally managed to ask.

"Has it really been that long since I kissed you?" she asked with satin in her tone.

"We can't," he breathed, still catching his breath from her kiss.

"I don't care anymore," she responded fiercely. "I _need_ you, Sam. _I love you!_" Her fingers graced the side of his face, cupping it like a priceless relic.

"What about…" he was stalling, he knew, but besides The Elders, he didn't want to wake up on November first and find regret in the brown eyes he'd come to find his only source of comfort in. "Victor?"

Patty halted. "Victor…" she whispered, her eyes glistening again, though not from joy. "Victor and I were over _long_ before Phoebe was born," she explained. "You already know that, Sam. We tried to salvage things for the girls, but clearly, that did not worked the way we'd hoped. And then I found _you_." She entwined her fingers with his and slid his hand up the curve of her waist and rested it over her heart. "And everything is so clear to me now. It has been for quite some time. Isn't it for you?"

Electricity tingled on every centimeter of his skin, into his blood, and right down to his bones. The conviction he heard in her voice was of the same impermeable strength he felt in his heart. _"Yes."_

Patty slipped forward to kiss him again and soon felt his leathered – but oh so tender – hands, slipping around her slender waist. She ran her fingers over his dark brown hair and liquefied into the heat of their kiss. Then she felt a strange sensation, like a deep tissue massage all over her body at precisely the same moment. It was something she'd only ever experienced once before and quickly realized she was orbing. Somehow the magic only seemed to intensify the kiss, unlike the many times he'd orbed away while she contemplated kissing him, or worse, _as_ she kissed him.

Orbing with each other was an experience unlike any other. Entangled in a kiss as they orbed, while their physical forms dissolved into the air, they felt physically _closer_ in the midst of _nothing and everything_ than they'd ever felt on a physical plane of existence.

When Patty felt her body reassembling itself again, she found the back of her head in a pillow and everything else weighing against a mattress. It wasn't soft enough to be her own bed, but without needing to see it, she recognized it immediately by the way that it was just uncomfortably enough to comfortable: she was on _Sam's bed_.

Patty had sat on it many times before, even late into the night while he'd make her hot chamomile tea as she talked and he would listen – really _listen_ – and respond earnestly to everything she'd said. Unlike her husband, he wanted to hear her out, hear what she had to say, and he would reply with substance. On one occasion, she'd even been so relaxed and content, she had fallen asleep by accident, and awoken the next morning to find herself covered with his softest blanket, while he'd fallen asleep in the chair in the corner of the room. The moment she'd seen him slumped over in that chair, with the morning sunlight barely sneaking into the cabin, she had realized that she loved him.

That feeling was consuming her in the present, as their bodies melded together. Everything she'd cherished about him was coming together threefold and exploding like a sparkler firework. _"I love you!"_ she gasped between their intoxicating kisses.

"I waited my whole life for you," Sam returned heatedly. He'd wanted to spill his heart to her for so long.

"Was it worth it?" she queried as she slid her hands down his now bare chest.

"Every day since I met you has been worth it. I've found meaning in your eyes that people generations search for their whole lives and never find. _I love you._ I'll love you _forever_."

"_And I'll be yours, tonight and forever."_


End file.
